NY Gov: Fracking regs likely delayed into 2013

Published: November 20, 2012 12:24PM

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says a health study of shale gas drilling will make it impossible to meet a looming deadline for new fracking regulations, pushing a much-delayed decision on the contentious issue into 2013.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has been doing an environmental impact study and drafting new regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, since 2008. Shale drilling has been on hold since then amid health and environmental worries surrounding fracking, which stimulate a well's production by injecting huge volumes of chemical-laced water.

The deadline for finalizing regulations is Nov. 29. But an expert panel was named last week to review the state's health impact study of fracking. Cuomo told a radio interviewer Tuesday he sees no way the panel's work can be completed by then.